I recently read an interview with Ricky Gervais where he said, “You should make something. You should bring something into the world that wasn’t in the world before. It doesn’t matter what that is. It doesn’t matter if it’s a table or a film or gardening — everyone should create. You should do something, then sit back and say, ‘I did that.'”

That? Is Tina. Making stuff and celebrating others who do the same. Talking to her or listening to her speak, even when she’s grumpy about something, you can feel what a positive force she is. She’s one of the lights.

That Gervais interview is okay, but it still feels wierd to see him used as a source of inspirational quotes. His reputation must be very different in the US, because here in the UK he is renowned for being an embittered egoist with a penchant for mocking the disabled and disadvantaged. I think that in the US he is seen as an analogue to Louis CK, whose edginess is bolstered by a strong ethical intelligence: two layers. Gervais has three layers, though: cruelty on the surface, atheistic intelligence beneath that, and then deep, ego-driven meanspiritedness beneath that.